Low buy: month one

In which I fail and am tempted to lie about it

Well, this month I publicly committed to self-restraint by announcing a low-buy year, which I’m hoping will change my relationship with consumption as a whole, but particularly clothing consumption. As an attempt to hold myself accountable, I’m documenting how each month goes. And as I’ve alluded to, January did not go well. It should have, seeing as it’s the worst financial month of the year, but it didn’t. It was sort of an accident, but I also did justify some of it by cheating. At the time I told myself it wasn’t cheating. But writing about it now, there’s a flicker of gut-guilt that tells me it clearly was…

Reminder: the challenge of the low-buy year is to limit myself to one non-essential clothing purchase a month. Or no purchases a month. But as you’ll see, that’s going to prove difficult.

What I bought:

Let’s start with the cheating - you be the judge. I’ve had this specific pair of Beyond Nine trousers on a watchlist for about five months, and they’ve always been sold out. They’re made of beautiful linen and have inverse shape of the site’s most popular trousers which suit me better. During this whole waiting period, my interest in them has not wavered, which is a strong indicator of how badly I want them. A big part of this cheating melodrama is that Beyond Nine’s email alerts don’t actually work, so the only way to bag a pair is by routinely checking the website. I sneakily told myself before I set the low-buy challenge that becuase this was something I’d been trying to get September 2024, it technically counted as last year’s purchase, not this year’s. An objectively unhinged thought. So when I hit refresh and saw my size available, I didn't even hesitate. Which wouldn’t have been a problem, except…

forgive me father, for i have sinned

…I’d already bought this skirt from Anthropologie. I’d seen it around Instagram last year and had been tempted - but the £180 price tag put me off. That’s out of my budget. So when I saw it on sale for £78, I gave into temptation. The dopamine hit of finding a bargain meant I was so smug at the time - my one and only purchase of Jan and it was on sale! I bought this skirt before I bought the trousers, and I’m not sure I would have if I had seen it in person. I still really like it, but probably not enough to part with almost eighty pounds (and it can’t be returned). I’ll make it work and I’m sure I’ll love it once I’ve figure out how to style it, but upon reflection, this was exactly the kind of impulse purchase I’m trying to avoid. And unfortunately, it wasn’t the only impulse purchase I made.

I can’t say I regret this, look at how excellent it is

This one was a genuine accident. I was watching TV, scrolling on Vinted and bought this t-shirt. I’d completely forgotten about my low-buy - and this was after I’d already sort of cheated. I only remembered like two hours later! The competitive nature of the app makes impulse purchasing so easy. You can’t leave anything in your cart to think about - and many a time have I caught sight of an item I love only to bitterly regret being so slow. But last year I cleared out my wardrobe and realised most of the stuff I wasn’t wearing were panic buys from Vinted. I’ve since refrained from scrolling (and will delete it once I’ve sold a few bits) and also made the decision to keep my phone far away from me during ad-breaks, becuase I’m pretty sure I bought that skirt during an ad break too.

And one more thing

Go wildcats! Go team! Yay sports!

I went to a football match in Dagenham in absolutely freezing conditions, and ended up buying a pair of West Ham stripy gloves because I hadn’t brought my own. Poor planning, yes, but buying these was absolutely the right decision. About half way through the match though, I did clutch my friend’s hand and gasp, “Fuck, I’m doing low-buy!”. She had to reassure me that these were an essential purchase, and within the rules. I agree - I’m too old to bear cold hands tbh, but what struck me about this whole thing is that I’d once again forgotten I wasn’t supposed to be buying new things. I’m not sure I would have gotten them if I’d remembered - but that would have been stupid becuase I was shivering before I even reached the stands. Cute, aren’t they?

And the final score

Essentials: 1

Non essentials: 3

Score: -2

OK so I have obviously failed. I’m going to wipe the slate clean and be kind to myself (lol) because I’ve never tried this before, and I’m clearly very shit at it. The most useful thing I’ve learned so far is that I tend to look for clothes when I’m bored, distracted or trying to treat myself out of a bad mood. All useful ammo for February. I’ll be doing a few months’s worth of updates at a time, so the next one of these will be in March or April. See you then!

A quick favour. I love writing these posts, and I intend to do them for free for as long as I can. If you enjoyed reading this, forward it to a friend (or three) who you think might like it too. It helps massively, because validation from strangers is truly the only thing that makes the horrors bearable for me.

PS: If you spotted a typo, no you didn’t.